What's An XBox
by Jenny-Beth
Summary: Hermione's Muggle cousin gives her an X-Box. She quickly discovers that "What's an X-Box" is the best pick-up line she has ever heard!


Disclaimer: It all belongs to Jo. Do I look like a Jo to you? I think I look like a Jenn…

Author's Note: Just a random piece of fluff that popped into my head as I once again read my favourite HP fanfiction ever!

_**What's An X-Box?**_

Hermione scowled at the page in front of her. If there was one thing she would never understand, this was it.

To be honest, the book in front of her was not at all to blame for her current bad mood. No, the cause of her confusion was the boy sitting at the next table. Even the presence of a boy was not usually enough to throw her into a funk. It was just _that_ boy that did it.

_That boy_ was Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin boy in her year. Her sixteen-year-old self found him more that just a little bit attractive. After all, no one could ignore the dark hair or the striking cobalt eyes. She was also unable to miss his height, which was more than her considerable five foot eight.

What she didn't understand was _why_ she was so distracted by him. Yes, he was attractive, but she had met attractive boys before without being so distracted by them. That he was a flirt only served to bother her, rather than add to her attraction. They had few classes together, as he was a Slytherin and she was a Gryffindor.

It just did not make sense, Hermione concluded with a growl as she snapped her book closed and packed it in her bag. The library had never failed to be a safe place for her to revise, but it had certainly not met her expectations today. There was no way she would be able to remember anything she had read with him sitting at the next table, his hair curling perfectly over the back of his robe.

The common room seemed to be a much safer environment in which she could resume her revising for tomorrow's Charms quiz. She plunked down at a table and began to pull out her books.

No sooner did she have her books set up on the table when Harry and Ron made their grand appearance. She smiled up at the loud boys, unable to be angry with either of them for any great length of time. 

"Hi, boys," she said with a smile, trying to keep her annoyance at this new disturbance at bay.

"Hey, Hermione," Ron was grinning widely. "Can we play that Z thing again?"

Hermione blinked at him for a moment, uncomprehending. "What?"

It was Harry who sorted it all out. "I believe the word you want is X-Box, Ron."

She blinked again. Curses upon her cousin, who thought that she was too studious and needed an X-Box to entertain herself at her fancy boarding school. Her blank gaze twisted into a scowl. She failed to remember just why she had brought it to Hogwarts with her. She had needed to look up some rather complex spells just to make it and a television work in the magical setting.

The two boys smiled at her hopefully and she sighed, before picking up all of her things and once again packing them into her book bag. "Alright. Let me put all of this away and then I will go and get it." She kept the X-Box in the Room of Requirement. The last thing she wanted was for the whole school to know she had it.

Soon her books were safely nestled away within her dorm and she was walking towards the Room of Requirement with the boys tagging along eagerly. She only ever let them play it in the room she kept it in, for the same reason she kept it there.

En route, they passed the library, with a familiar handsome figure walking out of it. Hermione chose to pretend that she did not see him, but Lady Luck was, once again, not on her side.

Ron bumped into Blaise. "Watch it, Zabini." he snapped.

Blaise's eyes sparkled with mischief. "You walked into me, Weasley. Where are you headed to in such a hurry?"

With no thought to Hermione's wishes whatsoever, Harry spoke up. "We're going to go play Hermione's X-Box."

The twinkle in the stunning blue eyes faded and he looked perplexed. "What's an X-Box?"

Hermione froze. He was just trying to understand. He was a pureblood, and did not know what this electronic device was. It was not meant to be a pick-up line… even if it _was_ quite successful.

Harry proceeded to explain to the Slytherin exactly what this wondrous black box was and what it did, while Hermione continued to gaze at Blaise dreamily. Fortunately, the three boys were so caught up in the discussion around an X-Box that they never noticed. Apparently Lady Luck did not hate her after all.

By the time the boys had turned back to Hermione, she was paying attention again. Now they wanted to know if the Slytherin could come along. Joy. Now he would be contaminated by this 'wondrous' Muggle device.

She forced a smile onto her face. "Sure."

As Harry and Ron turned and began to walk away, Hermione fell back to watch them chatter. Blaise had stayed with her.

It finally occurred to her to ask, "Why are you even doing this? It _is_ a _Muggle_ device, after all."

He smirked. "I can appreciate some of the things Muggles have." The tall Slytherin winked at her.

Hermione was taken aback. A boy had _winked_ at her! A _Slytherin_ boy! An _attractive_ Slytherin boy!

She pulled herself out of her reverie. This was not the way Hermione Granger was supposed to act!

Blaise was still smirking at her, and she wondered what he was thinking. If it had been any other girl but herself that he was looking at, she would have thought that he was having rather lecherous thoughts. He _was_ a Slytherin boy and all that.

He turned away from her, apparently unconcerned, and she convinced herself that she had imagined it all.

As it turned out, Blaise had never even _heard _of the Room of Requirement and was suitably impressed when Harry made the door materialize where there had previously been only blank wall. He was less impressed when they walked inside.

The room had turned itself into a Muggle living room of sorts. In it was the TV that Hermione had brought, the X-Box sitting beside it – looking deceptively innocent, Hermione thought – several couches, a stereo, and other miscellaneous Muggle items.

She sighed as she went about turning all of the relevant equipment on and watched the light around the eject button light up.

"Can we play-"

"Halo," she cut Ron off before he bungled up the name. It was the only game that he and Harry played, so she was unsure of why he even asked.

As she opened the game case, she glanced at Blaise. He looked awkwardly at the electronics, with their flickering lights and whirring sounds. It was, she imagined, not like anything he had ever seen or heard before.

Once the game was running, Harry and Ron each grabbed a controller and forgot that the other two were even there. Hermione turned to Blaise. "You alright?" she asked, seeing that he had begun to look nervous when sounds and moving pictures filled the screen in front of him.

He looked at her, blue eyes wider than usual. "This is what Muggles do for fun?" he counter questioned.

"Some," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes. "Not me."

His face relaxed into his usual smirk. "I caught that, actually."

She smiled and was about to reply when there was the sound of gunfire. Blaise jumped and searched the room frantically before his gaze fell on the TV. "It was just the game, Blaise. It's okay."

He looked at her funny, but said nothing. It was not until later that she would realize that it was because she had used his given name.

"Take that, you alien beasty thing!" Harry screamed at the TV while the room was filled with the sounds of gunfire once again.

"So…" Blaise trailed off once he had gotten used to the sounds of gunfire.

Hermione took pity on him. "What did you think of the assignment Professor Vector gave us in Arithmancy?" she asked calmly.

He nearly growled. "It's a far more reliable subject of study than Divination, but I hate it just the same."

She laughed. Suddenly Harry looked up. "Did you want to play, Zabini? Ron is killing me!"

Hermione smiled as Ron did a very odd victory dance and Blaise studied Harry. "What, exactly, do I have to do?"

Harry explained in the simplest way possible. "Shoot everything that doesn't look human." 

Blaise nodded and took the controller from the Gryffindor.

"So," Harry began while Ron set the game up to start another round. "You like him."

Hermione looked up at her best friend in surprise and embarrassment. "I do not."

"You're blushing," he said triumphantly, as if this proved everything.

"You're killing your own men!" Ron yelled in amusement.

Harry looked over. "I told you not to kill anything that looked human."

"Those are humans?" Blaise asked incredulously.

"Of course they are! They're just wearing armour." Harry said, as if Blaise was the dumbest person he had ever met in his seventeen years.

"Why in the name of Merlin's fuzzy pink bunny slippers are they wearing armour that looks like _that_?" Blaise asked in amazement.

Hermione hid a smile as Ron yelled, "To protect you from this, sucker!" and unleashed a giant round of gunfire.

Blaise bit back a scream and yelled, "What do I do?"

Harry laughed. "Pull the triggers."

"What's a trigger?" Blaise yelled.

Ron sighed and paused the game. He pointed to the buttons on the front of the controller. "Press them over and over again until I am out of range or dead."

Blaise nodded and Ron started the game up. Soon both boys were frantically mashing the buttons, hoping for the other one to die.

"Purebloods," Harry sighed with a wink. "You know, a guy who seems to hate Muggle electronics would be perfect for you…" he trailed off, glancing at the Slytherin to make his point.

"The thought had crossed my mind," Hermione admitted.

"Now what are you doing?" Blaise snapped in frustration.

Ron looked smug. "Shooting you from this vehicle."

"I give up," Blaise snarled. "This ekeltronic crap is ridiculous." He all but threw the controller at Harry. "Take it, Potter."

Harry caught the controller easily and winked at Hermione before he went to save Blaise's troops from their impending doom.

"Video games not your thing?" Hermione asked in amusement as Blaise came to stand next to her, turning his back on the TV.

"Apparently," he growled. "What do Muggles see in them?"

She shrugged. "Beats me."

Blaise stared at a spot over her head with a scowl slowly fading from his face. Finally he turned to look at her. "Let us never speak of this again."

"Which part?" she asked in amusement. "The part where you nearly screamed and drew your wand when you heard a gun? Or maybe you mean the part when you failed to identify a human. Or the part when you didn't realize there was a giant gun conveniently attached to a vehicle right in front of you."

She would have continued but he dropped his head to brush his lips against hers.

He was tentative, but it was effective. When he ended the kiss and looked at her, looking as if he were waiting to be slapped, she appeared to have scrambled brains sitting in a mushy pile in her skull. She was… baffled.

"Did you just… kiss me?" she asked, bewildered.

Blaise arched an eyebrow. "If you don't know, I did something wrong."

She shook her head as if to clear it. "I know what you did. I just can't quite believe it. Why?"

"Why can't you believe it? Possibly because I am stunningly good looking," he teased while pretending to preen.

Hermione shook her head in confusion yet again. "No. Why did you kiss me, you prat?"

"Well that's not very good incentive to make me do it again," he teased again.

"Take that, you alien freaks!" Harry screamed wildly. Hermione and Blaise barely spared him a glance.

"Why would I want you to do it again?" she asked while her face flushed.

Blaise smirked. "I _did_ see you looking at me in the library, Granger."

Hermione's colour deepened. "I did no such thing. You can't prove it."

"You can't prove that you didn't, either," he retorted, knowing full well that this was a childish argument.

She resisted the urge to stomp her foot. "I did not-"

He cut her off by kissing her again. It was much less tentative this time, and she actually responded.

There was a long pause in which they just stared at one another and then, "Merlin, Granger. We better not let it out that you go quiet when you are kissed, or I am going to have to beat Professor Snape off with one of your electronics!"

Hermione smacked his arm. "Play nicely," she intoned in a rather impressive imitation of Snape's voice.

"You hit me!" he said in real surprise.

"I WON!" Harry screamed. He looked up from the screen to brag to Hermione just in time to see her kiss Blaise. "Oh."

Ron turned from the TV screen (or evidence of his defeat, if you will) to see why Harry was not bragging excessively, and saw the pair of them.

"OI! I don't want to see that!" he barked at them.

Hermione looked up at Blaise's face. "What was that, Ron?" she asked while staring in those same beautiful blue eyes she had been admiring earlier.

Ron sighed heavily and turned to Harry. "Want to go for another round, mate?"

Harry threw one last glance at the happy couple and then looked at the screen. "You're going down, Weasley."

"Dream on, Potter!" Ron joked as they set up the game for yet another round.

Hermione sighed and Blaise looked at her curiously. "What?"

"If you hadn't caught my attention before the library…"

Blaise looked confused. "What did I do?"

She smiled. "You had me at 'what's an X-Box?'."


End file.
